More than 40% of Californians voted for President-elect Trump this year, marking the highest number of votes for a Republican presidential candidate in the blue state since George W. Bush's reelection in 2004.
Experts say Californians are not “as far left-wing as Mr. Newsom thinks” and that several state voting measures have swung conservatively, and that the Soros-backed progressive Los Angeles County District Attorney George・He cited the dismissal of Mr. Gascón.
Although Trump lost California to Vice President Kamala Harris, his electoral performance in the Golden State increased significantly. It received 31% of the vote in 2016 and 34% in 2020. Trump increased his share of the state's vote by 6 percentage points, despite a kind of conservative exodus that sent many residents to red states such as Florida and Texas.
In absolute terms, Trump's vote share in California ranks third behind Texas and Florida.
“Trump has built a bipartisan, multiparty coalition,” Susan Shelley, vice president of communications for the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, said in an interview on Fox News Digital. “He has built a bipartisan movement that is reaching people who have not benefited from the policies that have been put in place.”
Proposition 36 passes overwhelmingly in California, reversing some Soros-backed soft-on-crime policies
California Governor Gavin Newsom and President-elect Trump (Getty/AP)
“People have paid a lot of money for this, and that's why it's bipartisan,” Sherry said of California's clean energy mandate.
“Everyone's electricity bills are going up because of climate change policies,” Sherry said. “And Mr. Trump has promised to increase domestic energy production to lower energy costs, and he has a track record of doing so during his four years as president.”
“Congress is much more liberal and much more to the left than the voters, and you can see that in the results of the proposals,” said Shelley, who is also a columnist.
Proposition 36, which was overwhelmingly approved by California voters, repeals some decriminalization policies drafted by L.A. Attorney George Gascón and reinstates felonies for certain drug and property crimes. It was passed by a majority.
Another tax-related measure, Proposition 5, also failed. Critics of the measure said it likely would have led to higher property taxes because it would lower the standards for issuing municipal bonds funded by taxpayers.
Gascón, who had served as Los Angeles County district attorney since 2020, was also defeated. He will be replaced by Nathan Hockman, an independent who served as assistant attorney general under President George W. Bush.
“I think he knows California is changing and needs help,” Sherry said. “And he's talked a lot about California's election process of mailing out 22 million ballots, which he has concerns about. He's also talked about voter ID laws. I don't know if he'll do anything about it as president, but he certainly suggests that he knows Californians aren't as liberal as Gavin Newsom says they are.”
Donald Trump wins the 2024 presidential election
San Diego, California ranked #1 on the list of best cities to celebrate Thanksgiving 2024. (St. Petersburg)
California has also been ground zero for several culture wars over transgender issues such as children's education and gender reassignment surgeries for people incarcerated on taxpayer dollars.
Lance Christensen, a political expert at the California Policy Center, told Fox News Digital that these issues also helped boost Trump's votes in the Golden State.
“I think people were tired of the troubling things that Governor Newsom had been doing the last few years,” Christensen said. “And they saw him doing that because of the strong power of the Biden-Harris administration. And the insane progressive policies that were happening in California are being amplified in Washington, D.C. I don't think they felt there was anything wrong when they realized that it was a good backstop. ”
Governor Blue calls Congress after Trump victory: 'We're ready to fight'
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump raises his fist as he arrives to speak at a campaign event at Nassau Coliseum on Wednesday, September 18, 2024 in Uniondale, New York. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
In July, Newsom signed a new law that prohibits school districts from notifying parents if their child uses different pronouns or identifies as a gender different from their academic performance.
The law sparked a huge backlash from California parents, who spent months protesting the new law at local school district meetings and even went so far as to sue Newsom over the law.
“With a lot of social and cultural issues, ethnic studies, gender issues, sexual orientation issues that were going on in many of our schools, especially issues like Title Nine, schools wanted to do that nationally. More and more women are feeling disenfranchised by the Biden administration,” Christensen said.
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“I think we're going to see a shift in the partisan landscape in California, and it's not going to be dramatic and it's not necessarily going to be consistent across the board. But when that happens, there's a shift towards some kind of sanity. “I think there's going to be a march.'Politics isn't always going to be a red-and-blue divide,” he said.
On Thursday, Newsom responded to Trump's victory by calling state legislatures into a special emergency session in December to strengthen blue states' legal responses to future attacks.
“California is ready to fight,” Newsom said on TV's “X,” adding, “Whether it's basic civil rights, reproductive freedom or climate action, we're going to put the clock to work. We refuse to roll back and allow our values and laws to be attacked.”
His action came a day after Newsom said he would “work with the next president.”
